Kid Friendly

Following up my last post about how many art museums make it hard for parents with small children to visit, with some thoughts about an arts experience that I participated in over the weekend that provides access to families in a very broad-minded way.

While art museums aren’t necessarily the place to bring toddlers, it seems community orchestra concerts are!

I performed as an oboist with the Mill Valley Philharmonic this weekend in a series of concerts featuring music by Beethoven, Barber and J S Bach. It was great to see families in the audience at the performances — and it was especially gratifying that there were so many children from babes in arms to kindergartners to elementary, middle and high school students.

Here are the factors that make the attendance of children at such concerts a no-brainer for their parents:

The concerts my orchestra gives are free.

The performances happen at assorted times of the day across the span of a weekend, e.g. 2pm, 4pm and 8pm, making it possible to accommodate meals and bedtimes.

Audience members are free to move about the space. People come in and out as needed with their squirming infants without causing a scandal.

Many musicians hang about during the intermission and after the program so children and their parents can go and talk to them about their instruments.

These are small details. But they’re important ones. The kid-friendliness of the concerts that The Mill Valley Philharmonic puts on is one of the reasons why it’s so great that high-level community orchestras exist. The musical programs aren’t specifically oriented towards families. But they work on that level beautifully anyway.

Comments

I am a big fan of instrument petting zoos. They do a lot to inculcate the love of music in small children. And a secondary benefit is the demystification of orchestral instruments for adults as well. They learn more than they might let on.
As to your post about the DeYoung, I was stunned. Anyone with children knows a stroller is the safest place for them and whatever environment they’re in. Makes no sense. If their concern are the new mega-strollers, they might provide a handful of collapsible umbrella strollers for the duration of the visit.
I have seen some very creative ways in which spaces are made EITHER child-friendly OR young parent friendly. Partnerships with drop-in daycares, artsy playrooms “on site” with a 2 hour maximum, etc. If the new move is to make cultural spaces COMMUNITY spaces, then there must be a welcome sign, with accommodations, for all.

Chloe Veltman

...is the Senior Arts Editor at KQED (www.kqed.org), one of the U.S.'s most prominent public media organizations. Chloe returns to the Bay Area following two years as Arts Editor at Colorado Public Radio (www.cpr.org), where she was tapped to launch and lead the state-wide public media organization's first ever multimedia culture bureau. A former John S. Knight Journalism Fellow (2011-2012) and Humanities Center Fellow (2012-2013) at Stanford University, Chloe has contributed reporting and criticism to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, BBC Classical Music Magazine, American Theatre Magazine, WQXR and many other media outlets. Chloe was also the host and executive producer of VoiceBox, a syndicated, weekly public radio and podcast series all about the art of the human voice (www.voicebox-media.org), which ran for four years between 2009 and 2013. Her study about the evolution of singing culture in the U.S. is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. Check out Chloe's website at www.chloeveltman.com and connect with her on Twitter via @chloeveltman. [Read More …]

lies like truth

These days, it's becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between fact and fantasy. As Alan Bennett's doollally headmaster in Forty Years On astutely puts it, "What is truth and what is fable? Where is Ruth and where is Mabel?" It is one of the main tasks of this blog to celebrate the confusion through thinking about art and perhaps, on occasion, attempt to unpick the knot. [Read More...]